Guns & Other Freedoms

By Michael Potemra

SECTION: Books, Arts & Manners; Vol. LV, No. 13

HEADLINE: Guns & Other Freedoms

BYLINE: By Michael Potemra

BODY:

Each of us has a favorite part of the Bill of Rights; for me -- as
for many
others -- it's the First Amendment. But a good rule of thumb is to
consider that
particular freedom most important which, at a particular time, is most
under
attack. And that's why John R. Lott Jr. of the American Enterprise
Institute
deserves the status of Hero of the Constitution in our time: He stands
up for
the embattled Second Amendment, the section of the Bill of Rights most
hated by
today's smart set. Try the following thought experiment. Imagine a
fellow who
goes on TV and says, "Muslims tend to be violent and creepy," and
another who
says, "Gays tend to be violent and creepy." In both cases, there would
be a
justifiable explosion of outrage at the proclamation of such unfair and
bigoted
stereotypes. But now try to imagine a third fellow, who declares that
"gun
advocates tend to be violent and creepy." His outburst would probably
occasion,
at most, a press release from the National Rifle Association; the
mainstream
media and the public at large would likely see nothing exceptionable in
his
statement.

In his new book, The Bias Against Guns: Why Almost Everything You've
Heard
About Gun Control Is Wrong (Regnery, 349 pp., $27.95), John Lott
explains how
the defenders of gun ownership have been saddled with this undeserved
reputation
-- and provides the statistical truths that the anti-gun activists
don't want
you to know. The picture he paints is quite striking. Gun ownership is
an
important factor in reducing the crime rate; it makes ours a less, not
more,
violent society. For example, states with concealed-carry laws have
seen large
decreases in the number of multiple-victim public shootings; which only
makes
sense, because a violent criminal intent on a murder spree is more
likely to
shoot at targets he can confidently assume to be unarmed. This is part
of the
more general benefit of allowing citizens to engage in defensive gun
use. One
study found that in the ten states that adopted concealed-carry laws
between
1977 and 1992, overall murder rates fell after the laws were passed.
Lott's book
is full of information of this kind -- which is highly inconvenient for
media
outlets that want to traffic in gun scaremongering.

Since the first news search was done additional news stories have been
added to Nexis:

There are thus now 218 unique stories, and a total of 294 stories counting
duplicates (the stories in yellow were duplicates): Excel file for
general overview and specific stories. Explicit mentions of defensive gun use
increase from 2 to 3 now.